How to Make Homemade Pasta from Scratch

There is a persistent belief that fresh pasta is difficult, time-consuming, and requires special equipment. None of this is true. The dough comes together in ten minutes. Rolling it out takes another ten to fifteen if you have a pasta machine, twenty if you are using a rolling pin. The total active time for a pasta dinner for four is around forty-five minutes, most of which is cooking the sauce. What fresh pasta requires is practice, and practice requires making it often enough to get comfortable with how the dough feels.

The dough: two versions

Egg pasta (all-purpose)

The classic pasta dough of northern Italy. Rich, golden, silky, and most appropriate for flat shapes — tagliatelle, pappardelle, lasagne, fettuccine. For 4 servings: 300g 00 flour (or plain flour), 3 large eggs, and a pinch of salt. 00 flour is finely milled with lower protein content than bread flour, producing a more tender pasta. Plain flour works and is more accessible — the result is slightly less delicate but entirely acceptable.

Semolina dough (eggless)

Made with durum wheat semolina and water. Used for most extruded shapes in southern Italy — orecchiette, cavatelli, trofie. Firmer, more toothsome, and without the richness of egg pasta. For 4 servings: 200g fine semolina, 100g 00 flour, and 120ml warm water.

Making the egg pasta dough

Mound the flour on a clean work surface and make a well in the centre. Crack the eggs into the well. With a fork, beat the eggs and gradually incorporate flour from the inner walls of the well, working outward. When the mixture becomes too thick for the fork, use your hands to bring it together into a shaggy mass.

Knead for 8 to 10 minutes — the dough should become smooth, elastic, and not sticky. If it sticks to your hands, add a small dusting of flour. If it crumbles, add a few drops of water. The dough is ready when pressing it with your thumb leaves an indent that slowly springs back. Wrap in cling film and rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. This rest allows the gluten to relax, making rolling much easier.

Rolling the dough

With a pasta machine

Cut the dough into four pieces, keeping the rest wrapped while you work. Flatten a piece with your hand and pass it through the machine at the widest setting. Fold it in thirds and pass through again. Repeat this step three or four times — you are developing the gluten structure and making the texture smooth and even. Then progressively reduce the settings, one step at a time, until you reach the desired thickness. For tagliatelle and pappardelle, stop at setting 5 or 6 of 9. For lasagne, setting 6 or 7. For ravioli, 6 or 7.

With a rolling pin

Place a piece of dough on a lightly floured surface and roll from the centre outward, rotating 90 degrees after each pass. The goal is even thickness throughout. Pasta for hand-cut shapes should be about 1 to 2mm thick. Dust the surface and the dough regularly to prevent sticking, but do not over-flour — excess flour makes the pasta powdery and affects the finished texture.

Cutting and shaping

Tagliatelle

Dust the rolled sheet well with flour or semolina. Roll it loosely around itself like a scroll. Cut the roll crossways into 5 to 6mm strips. Unroll, shake to separate the strands, and dust with more semolina. The semolina keeps the strands from sticking together without being incorporated into the dough.

Pappardelle

Same method, but cut into 2cm strips.

Lasagne sheets

Cut the rolled sheet into rectangles to fit your baking dish. No other preparation needed.

Maltagliati

Literally "badly cut" — the scraps and off-cuts from other shapes, cut into rough irregular pieces. Excellent in soups. Requires no technique.

Cooking fresh pasta

Fresh pasta cooks in 2 to 4 minutes in vigorously boiling, heavily salted water — much faster than dried pasta. The exact time depends on thickness. Taste it after 2 minutes and every 30 seconds thereafter. Fresh pasta is done when it has lost its raw flour taste and has a slight chew — it should not be mushy, and it should not be stiff.

Reserve a cup of pasta water before draining. The starchy water is essential for finishing sauces — it emulsifies fat and creates the glossy, clingy coating that makes restaurant pasta look different from home pasta.

What fresh pasta goes best with

Fresh egg pasta suits rich, butter-based sauces and light cream or cheese sauces. Cacio e pepe, carbonara, brown butter with sage, and simple tomato sauces with butter all work beautifully. The egg richness can stand up to intensity but is overwhelmed by very long-cooked ragùs — for a proper slow-braised meat sauce, dried pasta is actually better.

Semolina pasta goes with heartier sauces — orecchiette with broccoli rabe and sausage, cavatelli with lamb ragù. The firmer texture handles bold flavours and holds sauces differently than smooth egg pasta.

Storing fresh pasta

Freshly cut pasta keeps in the fridge for up to 2 days, well dusted with semolina and loosely covered. It also freezes well: dust with semolina, loosely nest into portions, freeze on a tray, then transfer to a bag. Cook from frozen directly in boiling water — it takes about a minute longer than fresh.